Introduction

The story of Richard Kitchen is one of a large cohesive family grouping with a complexity of inter-relationships. The individual parts, besides being kin, lived as neighbours and friends. When one family moved to a new location, some of the others followed. At various times there were combinations of the inter-related Kitchen, Heath, Collver, Barber and Slaght families in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and in the Long Point Settlement in Upper Canada.

The Background

Richard Kitchen was born around 1765 on his father Wheeler Kitchen’s farm in Greenwich Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, land which originally belonged to his grandfather Henry Kitchen. A carpenter from England who settled firstly at neighbouring Amwell Township before 1720, Henry purchased a 600 acre tract at Greenwich. Henry married Anne Wheeler, daughter of Gilbert Wheeler, whose ferry at “The Falls” of the Delaware River in Bucks County, Pennsylvania carried passengers to the New Jersey side where present Trenton is located.

Before another century passed, many of the New Jersey pioneer couple’s grandchildren migrated north to the Canadian colonies and their descendants constitute most of Ontario’s Kitchen families today. Samuel Kitchen, Henry’s eldest son, had two sons: Henry of New Brunswick, a loyalist; and William of Grimsby. Wheeler Kitchen, the second eldest son of Henry had several children who moved to Canada- Henry of Ancaster, Andrew of Ancaster, Richard of Townsend, and John of Kent County. The next oldest in the Amwell family, Joseph Kitchen had four grandsons who settled in Upper Canada- Joseph of Charlotteville; and James, Richard, and Edward of South Dumfries. Of the children of the youngest, Henry Kitchen, Jr. only Joseph came to Upper Canada, settling at Townsend Township.

Richard’s father married Mary Heath, a daughter of Andrew Heath, Jr., whose brother John’s family also pioneered in the Long Point Settlement at the end of the eighteenth century.

Young Richard grew up among his uncles, aunts, and cousins. Besides Richard’s father, his uncles Henry and Joseph Kitchen shared in grandfather Henry’s land. Two more uncles, Samuel and Richard, lived at Amwell. The emphasis on the importance of family connections played a lifelong role in the younger Richard’s actions.

Early Life

Reverend William Frazer rode through the district as an Anglican clergyman serving several jurisdictions, including Greenwich. His home church, St. Andrews Episcopal in Ringoes, Amwell Township counted as its founders Richard’s uncle Samuel. One by one, Samuel’s children were baptized there, including Joseph Kitchen, who later joined his cousin Richard in the Long Point Settlement. On August 5, 1770, Richard Kitchen and his two brothers William and John, along with his mother Mary and his Aunt Jane, wife of Henry Kitchen, all were baptized by the Reverend Frazer.¹

In late 1785, Richard’s father, Wheeler Kitchen died in Greenwich. Probably that soon after that event Richard married Easter Osmun, daughter of Ziba and Rachel Osmun of Alexandria Township. Ziba died in 1777 after which Ziba, Jr. with his wife Joanna (Bird) Osmun moved to Greenwich, presumably accompanied by his mother if still alive and sister Esther and possibly other sisters and brothers.

Richard and Easter Kitchen’s eldest son Heath, named for Richard’s mother’s surname, was born in 1788 or before at Greenwich Township. The second son Wheeler, born about 1790 received his name for his paternal grandfather, the third son Ziba for his maternal grandfather.

Schooley’s Mountain, New Jersey

Exactly when Richard and Easter Kitchen moved to the Schooley’s Mountain, Roxbury Township, Morris County, New Jersey from Greenwich is unclear but it is certain they lived there by 1793 at which time Richard appeared on the 1793 Militia List of Roxbury Township.² This move included many relations, including Richard’s uncle David Heath and several of his children. One Heath cousin present was John Heath (later of the Long Point Settlement), born in 1763 who married Anna Sovereign, daughter of Frederick Sovereign and Lavinia Collver of Schooley’s Mountain about 1793. John’s brother, Joseph Worthington Heath started one of the earliest and most important tourist resorts in the United States, “Heath Hall” on Schooley’s Mountain.

Derry, Pennsylvania

In 1793, a number of Kitchen family members led by Richard’s uncle Henry left Greenwich for Derry Township, Northumberland County in north central Pennsylvania. Their pioneer settlement was nestled among the mountains in the Susquehanna River Valley near the village of Bloomsburg. Later in time Northumberland County was divided and this part named Columbia County. Richard joined the move to Derry arriving by 1793. His son Ziba born about that year later recorded in the Townsend Census of 1852 that he was born in Pennsylvania.

Richard and his family lived on a piece of land “situate on the head waters of the Chillisquaque Creek” a 169 acre farm in Derry Township. On nearby farms were his brothers Henry, Wheeler, Samuel and John and also uncle Henry with his four sons and their families. Sometime between 1793, and almost certainly by 1797, Christ Episcopal Church was erected on land donated to the trustees by Henry Kitchen, Sr. The subscribers to the church included, among others: ⁴

William Kitchen (cousin of Richard)

Henry Kitchen, Jr. (cousin of Richard)

Joseph Kitchen (cousin of Richard)

Henry Kitchen, Sr. (uncle of Richard)

Richard Kitchen

John Kitchen (cousin of Richard)

Samuel Kitchen (brother of Richard)

Later confusing census records in Townsend indicated that Richard’s second son Wheeler was born in Pennsylvania in 1790, that third son Ziba was born there in 1793, that son William was born in New Jersey in 1798, and that Henry was born back in Pennsylvania in 1804. The records during Richard’s life indicate that he and his family lived at Schooley’s Mountain, New Jersey as late as 1793 and that they settled at Derry Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania sometime before 1797. They lived at Derry in the following census:

1800 Census of Northumberland Co., Pennsylvania P. 782

Kitchen, Richard

3 males under 10: Wheeler, Ziba, William

1 male 10-16: Heath

1 male 25-44: Richard

2 females under 10: Sarah, Nancy

1 female 25-44: Easter

Settlement in Upper Canada

In the early summer of 1810, in preparation for a migration north from Pennsylvania to Upper Canada, Richard Kitchen sold his land in Derry Township. The deed dated May 18, 1810 from Richard and “Hester” (spelled Easter elsewhere) sold the property to Joseph Eves for the sum of 1,870 dollars.⁴ Very soon afterwards, Richard and his cousin Joseph and their families headed north to join Heath and Collver relations.

Four months later, at Woodhouse Township, Norfolk County, Upper Canada, Richard Kitchen petitioned the Government for a grant of land on which to settle: ⁵

The petition of Richard Kitchen of Townsend, Yeoman, Humbly Sheweth,

That your petitioner, a Native of Pennsylvania in the States of America Came to this Country in the present year for the purpose of settling and becoming an inhabitant there-of bringing with him Eight Sons and three Daughters---...

Your Petitioner therefore hopes that your Excellency will see fit to order him a grant of Two Hundred Acres of the Waste Lands of the Crown...

Woodhouse 24 Sept. 1810 Richard Kitchen

Having lived among family relations all his life, it seems logical that he chose a location among those who earlier settled at Townsend Township. On June 24, 1811 a location ticket and a survey document describing lot 7 in the twelfth concession of Townsend Township were made out to Richard Kitchen by the Surveyor General’s Office.⁶ He patented his lot in the Norfolk registry office the next day.⁷ The Kitchen farm was situated about a mile east of the main road which ran south from Brantford through Waterford, Simcoe, and then to Lake Erie. In those times the locals called this busy thoroughfare the Mount Pleasant Road. When the highway numbering system came into being the road became Highway Number 24, which held until a new highway was built a few miles to the west.

At the time of the Kitchen family’s arrival, the nearest village was the bustling mill seat of Waterford a few miles north along the road. Later, the Kitchens’ nearest village, Bloomsburg was founded by Richard’s son William, the naming reminiscent of the family’s location in Pennsylvania.

The War of 1812

Although the Richard Kitchen family established itself in Upper Canada less than two years before the War of 1812 broke out, they defended their new home with all the vigour of a family settled much longer. In 1812, Captain Nisbett Collver recruited a company for the Second regiment of the Norfolk County Militia. Several came from his relations near Waterford. On a Muster Roll of the Company for the period July 1 to September 12, 1812, Richard’s son, Heath held the rank of Corporal and, besides Richard, the privates in the company included John Heath, Timothy Collver and Jacob and Dennis Shoff, also Collver relations.

On August 16, 1812, Richard’s second son Wheeler Kitchen served in the British and Canadian troops under General Sir Isaac Brock that marched on, besieged, and took Fort Detroit for which he received a medal in 1847.

After Captain Collver died in October 1812, the men of his Company joined that of Captain Henry Medcalf’s Company In a Muster Roll of May 24, 1814, Richard and his older sons Heath and Wheeler and son-in-law Morris Heath were all listed. E. A. Owen in his Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement wrote that Richard’s son William, aged 15, offered himself as a substitute for his father in 1814 and was accepted.⁸

Later Life

On January 12, 1814, Richard assisted in the appraisal of the estate of Ebenezer Collver, attaching his signature to the document.⁹ Later in the year he performed a similar function in the estate of Abraham Beemer.¹⁰ With a growing family, on April 24, 1815, Richard purchased from Benjamin Sharp for £75 another 100 acre farm, the north half of lot 8 in the thirteenth concession of Townsend.¹¹ This eventually became the home of his youngest son, Philip.

Richard’s civic service included a tour as a Grand Juror of the London District Court held at the old district capital of Charlotteville on December 12, 1815 and as a Petty Juror on October 13 and 14, 1818.¹²

Richard Kitchen died in July 1826, the date mentioned in a petition for Letters of Administration over his estate filed by William Kitchen on January 9, 1828.¹³ Presumably his wife predeceased him as the custom of the day required mention of the widow in the petitions, her dower rights on the land giving her first right of inheritance. The burial place of this pioneer couple of Townsend is unknown. Greenwood Cemetery of Waterford lies close to the Kitchen farm. This cemetery may have been named after Greenwood Township in Pennsylvania. It is also possible that they were buried in the Collver Cemetery.

The Baptist Influence

Despite their strong Episcopal Church background in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the second generation of the Kitchen family came under the influence of the Baptist Church at Townsend then became its staunch supporters. In 1828, the Culver Plains Baptist Church was established on Lot 6 Concession 11, Townsend next to the Kitchen farm. Several children of Richard and Easter were recorded as members of this Church in a list dated February 2, 1828:¹⁴

“The Church met at the School House near Timothy Colvers agreeable to a previous agreement to transact business. Elder Simon Mabee preached from 3 chapter of the Epistle of John 2nd verse. Beloved now we are the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be etc. Voted that Elder John Harris serve as Moderator and Benjamin Hazelton Clerk of this meeting... by the request of the Brethren of this place. Voted to set them apart as a Branch of our Church [Boston Baptist] whose names are here underwritten:

Bretheren: Sisters:

John G. Kitchen Polly Kitchen

William Kitchen Lovina Kitchen

Henry Kitchen Betsy Kitchen

Nancy Kitchen

Other relations on the list included Timothy Collver, Frederick Heath, Polly Collver, Charity Heath, Unice Culver Schuyler, Nancy Heath, Anna Heath, Esther Heath, Betsy Collver and possibly Ephraim and Lucretia Wheeler. Lebbenus Kellum, another on the list, later became related when he married Sylvia Ann, daughter of Aaron Collver. In fact only a handful ssem not related one way or another.

In 1831 “the 2nd Townsend Church” became a charge separate from Boston Baptist Church and a new frame building at Culver Plains served the congregation as both church and school. The Baptist Society formed in 1839 included John Kitchen, Mary Eunice Kitchen and Deacon Henry Kitchen (Treasurer). The land for the present brick church at Bloomsburg came to the congregation as a donation from William Kitchen in 1850.¹⁵

Some in the Kitchen family embraced neither the Anglican nor the Baptist religion but joined other faiths. Wheeler Kitchen reported “Universalist” and Ziba stated Methodist at the time of the 1852 Census of Townsend.

Family Marriages and Settlement

The Kitchen, Collver, Heath and Barber families lived as neighbours and fellow Baptists at Townsend as they had been in New Jersey, some of them related by marriages in New Jersey. More combinations of the four families were formed by unions in the second generation in Upper Canada. Wheeler and John Green Kitchen married Esther Ann and Martha Collver. Sarah, William and Philip Kitchen married Morris, Lavinia and Esther Heath. Henry and Richard Kitchen married Elizabeth and Miriam Barber. In the third generation, still more marriages occurred among these families.

As they came of age, most of Richard and Easter’s children settled near them and only two moved away during the couple’s lifetime. Oldest son Heath chose farms near Hamilton, firstly at Nelson Township then at East Flamborough. Wheeler purchased a part of the homestead from his father. Ziba bought the farm immediately to the north in the eleventh concession. William went for a time to pioneer in Kent County but then returned to found Bloomsburg. John took over the north half of the homestead. Henry purchased a farm a few miles northeast on the ninth concession. After the couple’s death, the younger sons Richard and Philip also continued to make their home in Townsend. The youngest daughter, Mary pioneered a farm with her husband to the north in South Dumfries Township, Brant County.

Sources

1. “Records of the Rev. Wm. Frazer, of the Anglican Clergy, appointed to Amwell, Kingwood and Musconetcong”, in Pennsylania Magazine, Vol. 12, 1882. The baptismal records covered May 1768 when the pastorate began to 1772.

2. Norton, James S. New Jersey in 1793, P. 25

3. Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties (Beers: 1915)

4. Northumberland County Deeds: Grantor Index: Richard and Easter Kitchen to Joseph Eves: Q79: 18 May 1810; Registered 20 Aug 1810; Derry Township.

5. National Archives of Canada. Upper Canada Land Petitions, “K” Bundle 10, Document Number 5

6. Township Papers, Townsend Township, Norfolk County, Archives of Ontario RG 1, C-IV, MS 658, Reel 484, P. 1184, 1394

7. Abstracts of Deeds Register, Townsend Township, Norfolk County, Vol. A, Archives of Ontario GS 2610

8. Owen, E. A., Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement. (William Briggs, Toronto: 1972), P. 557

9. London District Surrogate Registry, First Series, Number 44

10. London District Surrogate Registry, First Series, Number 45

11. Memorials of Deeds of Norfolk County, Old Series Number 1122

12. Fraser, Alexander, “Minutes of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the London District”, in Department of Public Records and Archives, Twenty Second Report (King’s Printer, Toronto, ON: 1934), P. 147, 193, 194

13. London District Surrogate Registry, First Series, Number 151

14. Blythe, Christopher, Sarah Brown & David Judd. Townsend and Waterford: A Double Portrait. Waterford and Townsend Historical Society. (Niagara Regional Library System: 1977), P. 46

15. Ibid. P. 46-47